Grounds preparation for seeding and lawn installation is a part of most building and construction projects. Preparing soil for seeding and lawn installation involves grading, filling, leveling and scarifying the soil around buildings, side walks, trees and other obstacles. Conventional industrial and commercial earth moving equipment is designed to operate in large open areas, thus they are not well suited for operation in confined areas or around the edges of buildings and other structures. Consequently, most of the finishing work around buildings and confined areas is still performed by laborers with hand tools. Utilizing conventional skid loaders or skid steers as they are commonly known has decreased the amount of hand work involved in lawn and grounds preparation. As a small utility loader, the skid steer is well adapted for precision earth moving operations in confined areas. Skid steers have hydrostatic transmissions with four independent wheels, which allows the skid steers to pivot in place. Skid steers also include hydraulic controlled lift arms and pivoting attachment assembly, which can be operated simultaneously while driving skid steers.
A skid steer can be fitted with various attachments to perform a variety of earth moving functions; however, no single skid steer attachment has been developed to address all the operational needs of the lawn or grounds preparation industry. Bucket attachments are ideal for transporting loads of soil to low lying areas, but are ill suited for spreading the soil radially across the low lying area. The conventional blade type attachment allows the skid steer to grade but does not drag soil or scarify effectively. The bulk of conventional buckets and blade type attachments obstruct the operators view of the ground being worked. Mechanical scarifying rakes have been developed for use with skid steers; however, these scarifying rakes have complex mechanical parts, which are often subjected to stress, which results in damage and often failure. The articulated mechanical scarifying rakes are large and cumbersome, which makes them difficult to operate in confined areas, such as around building and other obstacles. The operator's view of the ground being worked is obstructed by the bulk of the mechanical attachments. Furthermore, the scarifying rakes are ineffective at moving soil to low lying areas. Since no single attachment is suitable for all the lawn preparation functions; namely grading, filling, leveling and scarifying, the skid steer attachments must be frequently interchanged during use at the job site. Transporting multiple attachments is cost ineffective.